Ive had Phoenix since it came out and have lost count of the number of updates now , they include scenery , helis ,planes and version updates all at no extra cost . Physics are pretty good and looks nice too without the need for a high end PC or graphics card .My personal opinion is they fly very much like they are supposed to .And if you don't like the way a plane or heli flies you can tweak all the settings for each individual one without stuffing up the original . Can change CG , wing type, power and a whole crap load of others (if I knew what they did) .Can also make it as windy as you want . It's probably personal choice which one you go for as the commercial ones are all very good .

I am a cheapskate I use FMS with an $8 cable I picked up off Ebay together with an old radio . I think Hobbyking carries the same cable for a couple of bucks. It taught me basic flying , thats it. that is all I really needed it for. I dont do 3D or helis. If I did I would get one of the better systems but as it turned out I was able to solo after only 3 five minute flying lessons from my instructor at the local field. He was amazed (and frankly so was I ) .

I have both Phoenix and G4.5. I mainly fly helis, and have found that g4.5 is more realistic. But it certainly isnt twice as good as Phoenix.G4.5 also requires a super compter to run it

So my pick is Phoenix, half the price, will run on just about any computer and updates are free.The graphics are good, not as good as G4.5, the physics are good, not as good as g4.5 but certainly up there on both counts.

Back in the mid '90s, I was using a Dave Brown Flight sim that was great! I could modify all aspects of the airplane to fly very similar to the actual planes I had, although I could not modify the image of the airplane.I have been pushing Aerofly Deluxe on all my students and flying buddies, and have found that of those that use the sim regularly, their flight skills improve dramatically. I am afraid, however, that my complacency of ground avoidance has increased dramatically as it is a lot easier, and cheaper to crash and repair a flight sim model.Bryan

i bought Clearview RC Sim, great graphics and lots of models to download, physics okay.I also managed to get a torrent and a crack for Realflight G3.5 which is very good, graphics are excellent and physics are pretty spot on.Thing is, it doesn't matter what the graphics or physics are like, you need to learn for the control movements to become second nature and get your orientation sorted. FMS is fine for this and free.

I learned basic fixed wing and heli on an old wireframe graphics AeroChopper system on the Atari ST years ago. I went solo on planes on my third flight and helis on my first weekend, basic aeros following a few weeks later. The physics and graphics back then were highly questionable, and yet it taught me to fly. In subsequent years I have tried CSM Sim, TruFlite, FMS, Microsoft Flight Simulator (yes, really!), RealFlight. I'm back into models again now after a ten year (-ish) break and now have Phoenix. I'm running it on a 7-year old computer and while it doesn't 'fly' (urgh!), it does ok and helps get thumbs moving in the right direction. I still think sims are awesome for basic training and I still think they suck in many areas. Out of all I have tried, I think Phoenix is workign best for me; the helis are good, the planes less so, but you can tweak just about everything if you have the patience (which I don't). Just about *any* sim will teach you basic stick movements and orientations.